Emerging powers

Today I am going to rant about the “ emerging countries”. There seems to be a big public opinion campaign in favor of the “ new powers”, namely South Africa, Brazil and India. They even want to be permanent members of the Security Council. At least the present members ( USA, UK, China, France and Russia) pay for the activities of the organization in which they rule supreme.

But these other countries want to come in via the front door. They claim that they have grown into World powers. Really? Nothing could be further from the truth.

We may have changed our perception of these countries, but they certainly have not changed. In each and every one of them, millions, that’s right, millions of their citizens, go to bed hungry, every day!

What happened to “ no taxation without representation”. Shouldn’t we change the order of the phrase: “ no representation without taxation”. If they want influence on a world scale, let them be prepared to pay for it.

The problem is that for the countries with true global interests, the issue is not really that important. The US, for instance, needs those 3 countries as allies and, since the US is not going to let go of its policy and interests, it really is no big deal whether the 3 become “ world powers” or not.

Other countries, those who really do pay for the UN, Germany, Japan, Spain, Italy, Holland, etc, seem to believe that they have lost the battle and that they will have to see those “ emerging powers” take a prominent place in the world order and they will have to pick up the tab.

But, questions must be asked and answered. After the past two years in the Security Council, when South Africa has supported actively every rogue regime in the world, refusing over and over again to condemn Mugabe in Zimbabwe, to accept criticism of Iran, or North Korea; Do we really want this country to play a leading role in defining and defending the world order?

Brazil and India also actively share this “ See no evil” foreign policy. They eagerly take Western credit for their needs of advanced technology and equipment, and they then sell there less sensitive equipment to anyone who is prepared to pay for their planes, trains, weapons, etc. which then, in turn, are used against their own people.

I think it is time that we should tell the rest of the world that power has to be paid for or at least earned on a daily basis. If the “ emerging powers” want to play a key role, they will have to earn the International Community’s respect with their stand on world issues. As long as they keep supporting tyrants, they will need to accept a secondary role in world events.